


suntan lotions and raincoats

by grandmas_ghost (nap_princess)



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst, F/M, I wrote this fic for me but y'all can read it if you want, Juvia my Queen, Lisanna my Queen, Modern AU, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Sad Ending, nali brotp, school au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 20:10:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14880423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nap_princess/pseuds/grandmas_ghost
Summary: "Did you mean it when you said I was pretty?" / They break into the school gym to celebrate after-prom– One-sided Gruvia with mentions of Nalu, bittersweet / falling in love with best friend AU





	suntan lotions and raincoats

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [1950](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/388020) by King Princess. 



> * * *
> 
> for violet2971 because she reads and reviews all of my Gruvia fics and the things in between

** suntan lotions and raincoats **

* * *

I love it when we play 1950

– **King Princess** , _1950_

* * *

"So, Juvia-chan, are you sure you don't want me to be your after-prom date?" Lyon Bastia asks, wiggling his brows.

"Umm, Juvia …"Juvia Lockser stutters back, doe eyes wider than usual. She leans away from the couch she's sitting on. Compared to Lyon, Juvia looks and feels overdressed sitting in his living room.

"Oh, come on, you don't have a date. I could _really_ make your night." Lyon reasons.

"But ... Juvia and Gray-sama and our friends planned to go to after-prom together …" Juvia trails off, looking at her high heels and the hem of her midnight blue dress that pools around her feet.

It was true, Juvia and her friends were going to after-prom. And by 'after-prom', she meant breaking into the school gym after prom so that they could still enjoy the disco ball and big hall and final moments of Senior year without paying for overpriced tickets or being surrounded by people they hate.

The eight of them have got their own spiked drinks and playlist of banging music to dance like crazy to. And if things don't go as plan, Lisanna's brought a pack of cards in her clutch and Bickslow's taken a _Monopoly_ set as his after-prom date because he's too much a wimp to ask Lisanna. But, hey, their group of friends guesses the two match in terms of their plus one.

"Fuck off, Lyon." Gray Fullbuster answers instead, throwing his tie at his cousin as he straightens the collar of his tux.

Lyon gets bitch slapped by the damn thing and practically glares into Gray's skull in return. Lyon snarls, "Hey!"

"You can't come with us and that's final." Gray says, sending Lyon a pointed look. "Stop trying to sneak your way in by asking Juvia to be your date. The eight of us have been planning after-prom for _weeks_. You can't just waltz in and ask Juvia hours before the plan starts." Gray then adds, "Plus, you don't even go to our school."

"So what if I go to Lamia?" Lyon asks, frowning while glancing at Juvia at the corner of his eye. He's waiting for her to step in and persuade Gray to let him come but Juvia's just keeping to herself and staring at her painted nails. Lyon states, "Not everyone can be a fairy. I _could_ still take Juvia-chan to after-prom."

"In your pajamas?" Gray asks and this makes Lyon's ears burn red.

"I can get dressed," Lyon snaps.

Gray crosses his arms, "No way. You already decided to skip going to your own prom at Lamia to go to a concert, you can't come to ours."

" _Fine_ ," Lyon scoffs then turns the other way. "I'll have an early night then." He straightens his pajama top then gets off the couch. But before he leaves, he mutters a sugary sweet "Good night, Juvia-chan" to the very girl then walks out of the room.

Once Lyon's out of earshot, Juvia turns to Gray, swishing her head and making her blue curls fall over her shoulder. Juvia says, sending a small smile in Gray's way, "Thanks, Gray-sama,"

Juvia's always been the shy type, never confrontational. If Gray hadn't stepped in, she would have probably caved in or tripped over her words until Lyon somehow interpreted her mumbling as 'yes, Lyon, you can be my date'.

"What are best friends for?" Gray replies, grinning back at her.

If Juvia was given a small moment to reflect on Gray's words, she would have probably let a small part of her heart die. But, lucky for Juvia, someone stepped into the conversation before that could happen.

"Lucy?" A new voice sounds as Erza Scarlet walks into the living room, her own heels clicking on the floor.

"She's still upstairs." Gray and Juvia answers in union.

Erza gives the duo a strange stare for a moment. Sometimes she thinks Gray and Juvia are too eerily similar. They need time away not joint by the hip.

"Lucy's running late per usual." Erza huffs, hands dusting invisible dirt off her pretty black dress, "Can you get her, Juvia? I want to go now before it gets too late."

"Sure," Juvia nods. She gives Gray one final look then exits out the living room and up the stairs towards Lucy who's occupying Urtear's room.

* * *

{ I hate it when dudes try to chase me but I love it when you try to save me 'cause I'm just a lady }

* * *

"Urtear-san?" Juvia calls, knocking on the bedroom door before opening it.

Lucy's voice answers. "She's watching TV in Gray's room."

"Oh, then, Lucy-san can you please hurry?" Juvia relays as she strides into Urtear's room. "Erza-san says we have to go now."

"Wait – I just painted my nails!" Lucy Heartfilia reasons, because everyone knows nails takes three days and three nights to dry. The blonde girl turns away from Urtear's make-up dresser, careful not to smudge her hands.

"There's no time, Lucy-san. We're late and everyone is waiting." Juvia replies, puckering her glossed lips together.

"What's wrong with being fashionably late?" Lucy asks, fluttering her eyes at Juvia in an attempt to beg for five more minutes.

A teddy bear soars across the room and hits Lucy's shoulder. It's thrown by Lisanna Strauss. Lucy swore the girl had fallen asleep earlier on her bed.

Lisanna says, "Being fashionably late isn't the problem, it's that we're trying to sneak into prom when it's close to being empty. If the doors close before we get there then the after-prom plan is a big fairy fail."

"Please?" Lucy pleads and makes a puppy dog face for extra measurements. She would clasp her hands together if she could.

"No," Comes the answer from Lisanna.

When it doesn't work on Lisanna, Lucy turns to Juvia.

"One minute," Juvia gives in.

Lisanna rolls her big blue eyes and rises from Urtear's plushie infested bed. Her white hair's a little all over the place but nothing a good brush won't fix.

"While my nails dry up, why don't we fix your hair, Lisanna?" Lucy asks, wiggling her golden fingernails.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Lisanna asks, running a hand through her short locks. Maybe the sparkly purple prom dress she's wearing will mask her serious case of bedhead.

Lucy sends Juvia a look which results in the blue haired girl's giggling. The two answer, "Everything."

* * *

Surprisingly, sneaking into school wasn't that hard. Even more so for the gym. Mind you, all eight of them were geared up in fancy clothes and styled hair, so sneaking _anywhere_ seemed like a challenge enough.

Once inside the big gym, Natsu Dragneel leans down and steals a quick kiss from Lucy, smearing red lipstick on his lips and causing Lucy to gap. The romantic gesture makes Juvia sigh longingly and a tad bit envious.

Lucy hollers at him for being a punk but he ignores her by running to the center of the gym. It's still decorated with cheap looking curtains that try to look majestic and big circular tables surrounded by chairs. It's a big room and they've got it all to themselves, there were no teachers to confiscate their drinks and no one to tell them to make room for Jesus if a couple starts sucking each other's faces off.

(The clean-up crew must have chosen to clean up another day. It was a Friday, after all)

Soon music booms from a portable stereo. Natsu's the first to dance all wild, acting like the loveable idiot he is, shaking his entire body like his pants are on fire. Some laughed at his antics but most joined in.

And when Natsu hollers over the music, "Great playlist, huh?", Erza contemplated on throwing her heel at his face but Jellal held her back (well, Natsu did create the playlist so it's logical that he'd enjoy the music the most but he didn't have to be so fucking smug about it).

* * *

{ I'm surprised when you kiss me }

* * *

Gray and Juvia are just dancing in circles now, taking clumsy steps and laughing at each other's inability to move with grace.

"Ack!" Juvia lets out a yelp when her hip bumps against a chair and knocks it over. Her hands clutch the back of Gray's shirt in an attempt to steady herself, causing wrinkles on his nice iron shirt and for Gray to laugh at her silliness.

She can't help but laughs along with him. She says, "Sorry, Juvia is so dumb."

"What? No, you're not. You're not dumb." Gray says, swinging her in a circle, moving away from the chairs and tables. "You're smart, Juvia. You always go over the word count when you write your essays and you always get As."

Juvia opens her mouth to protest, "But Juvia –"

Gray hushes her with a shake of his head. "You're smart, Juvia. You are." Then he adds with a smile plastered on his handsome face, "You're funny and kind. You're passionate and you're pretty."

Juvia's feels her ears warm up. If Gray wasn't holding her hands, she'd punch him on the shoulder playfully just get the embarrassment out of the way.

He adds, "You're so weird but you're a good friend."

"Thank you," Juvia says to Gray then tries not to meet his eye. She still has moments where she's terribly shy.

From the corner of her blue eyes, Juvia sees Lucy's dancing with her shoes off and Natsu's attempting to dance with his girlfriend's heels on because the point of tonight is to be young and stupid, and have fun. The big star stickers in the backdrop makes things even more magical.

* * *

{ So bold, make them know that you're with me }

* * *

At some point, Natsu finds himself holding onto Lucy in one hand and Lisanna with the other. He's attempting to spin them or do a salsa dance move or something but the girls turn on him at the last minute and Natsu just ends up getting spun by them until he's dizzy. But that's just how his girlfriend and best friend works.

Laughs echoes around until Bickslow gets involved and somehow a conga-line forms halfway through after-prom. Gray joins in despite making a big show and rolling his eyes at the ridiculous scene, but that's only after Juvia tugs on his sleeve and insist they play along too.

They're all having fun and Juvia doesn't want the night to end.

* * *

{ I hope that you're happy with me in your life,  
I hope that you won't slip away in the night }

* * *

"It's called _Speed_ , Bickslow, not _Turtle_!" Lisanna's voice rings out, chortling at Bickslow. She's sitting crossed-legged on the gym floor with her shoes off.

The sound of Bickslow's hands slapping on the cards echoes through the room. He replies playfully, hardly containing his own laughter, "I know I'm slow, Lissy Babe, shut up! I don't need you rubbing it in my face! I know I can't win but I can learn,"

Half the group has given up on Natsu's playlist. Lisanna and Bickslow have started a friendly game of _Speed_ while Jellal and Erza have disappeared to have a moment alone or something along the lines.

But then –

"We have to go NOW!" Erza yells, echoing her earlier words as she bursts into the room. Her beautiful red hair is blown to the side and she's breathing hard as if she's just run a marathon.

"What? You have the audacity to say that after disappearing for half the night?" Bickslow squawks, the alcohol has been hitting him hard for half an hour now.

Lisanna pauses her game of _Speed_ though her hands are now clutched nervously at her cards.

"The security guard almost caught us when we were in hanging out in the music room, he's hot on our tail!" Jellal explains, skidding behind Erza. He looks equally of a mess as Erza, with sweat sliding down his neck and lipstick smudged on his face.

Gray asks, "You lead them to us?!"

"I didn't have a choice, he was coming this way anyway!" Erza booms, still looking wild and panicked. "Now, let's get out of here –"

"HEY!"

"Oh, FUCK, it's the security guy! Scram, you guys!" Erza yells and books it with Jellal behind her once again.

It's chaos with a string of curses sprinkled on top. Natsu hurriedly grabs Lucy and her high heels as he runs towards one of the many escape doors, Bickslow and Lisanna abandon their card game but grabs the _Monopoly_ set on their way out (those fuckers are expensive, okay?) and Gray practically lifts Juvia off the ground in an attempt to flee.

In the end, all eight of them split up like a bunch of dumb teenagers in a horror movie.

* * *

{ Stone cold, will you miss me? }

* * *

They ran all the way to pool where they finally took a break to catch their breath. Everyone's already texted the group chat and said they were either safe or still on the chase which was the thrill of tonight, apparently. It's five AM, the sun was rising, yet at the same time, the stars and moon were still out. It felt otherworldly.

"We didn't even get to name anyone prom queen," Juvia musses, cheek in her hand, bare legs dunked in cool chlorine water.

"Yeah ..." Gray replies, unfolding a cardboard _Burger King_ crown from his pocket. Tonight was supposed fun but ...

There's a brief pause before Gray starts constructing the crown. And for a moment – just a moment – Juvia lets herself believe Gray's going to declare her prom queen himself.

But then Gray plops the damn thing on his own head and says with a wide grin, "Guess I'm prom queen then,"

Juvia lets out a laugh. "It's not like Juvia can deny that Gray-sama is the hotter one out of us two."

She guesses she's too imaginative in romance. There's no way that her best friend will suddenly profess his love for her. Juvia's been keeping her crush on him on a low radar for two years now.

Then Juvia says, "Did Gray-sama mean it?"

"What? Being prom queen?" Gray asks, lifting his eyebrow.

"No," Juvia shakes her head and Gray maintains his lifted eyebrow. Her hands now fiddle with the sleeves of her dress.

.

.

.

{ Did you mean it when you said I was pretty?  
That you didn't wanna live in a city where the people are shitty? }

.

.

.

"That Gray-sama is going to the University of Balsam while everyone else is going to the local U." Juvia asks, finishing her question.

"Oh," Gray says, his voice dropping a little.

Even though they're best friends, talking about their future has always been a grey-area topic. It was like the weather, neither black or white. Some days it was so warm and shining like the sun, so bright and strong that sunglasses and suntan lotion were needed to ward off the cheery brightness. Other days, it was gloomy and sensitive with a chance of waterworks were around the corner. Those are the days when umbrellas and raincoats are needed.

And, Gray guesses, it's this very moment too. He says, "Yeah, it's a great school for architecture."

"And halfway around the world." Juvia adds softly.

"Yeah," Gray bites his lower lip. "Yeah, it is." Then he plops the _Burger King_ crown on her head before combing some blue curls away from her face and saying, "I'm sorry, Ju."

She tells him, "It's okay."

It's actually not.

A sad smile spreads across her face. She can't fake the emotion.

"We'll still be best friends." Gray reassures and his hands laid still on the side of her face.

A part of Juvia wants to ask 'Only best friends?' but doesn't. Instead, she just nods her head because she thinks she'll ugly cry if she tries to speak.

"Ju?" He calls her. Only 'Ju' when they're alone.

His hand feels so warm and Juvia presses the very hands that's still on her cheek closer and doesn't speak.

"Hey, we'll only be separated for four years. I would have been three but I want to do my masters." Gray says then moves his hands away and pulls Juvia in for a one arm hug. He knows how she is. Such a cry baby. He says in almost a whisper now that's she's oh-so closer to him, "I'll be back."

"Juvia will wait for you," Juvia answers.

.

.

.

{ So I'll wait for you, I'll pray, I will keep on waiting for your love }

.

.

.

She looks him in the eyes, blue against his dark ones. He looks so handsome in his tux, messy hair and all. He makes it clear that he values their friendship while she's putting her heart on her sleeve. Juvia repeats herself, "Juvia will _always_ wait for Gray-sama."

.

.

.

{ For you, I'll wait, I will keep on waiting for your … }

* * *

**end**

**Author's Note:**

> Umm, this was supposed to be fluff but I ruined it. I'm sorry, violet2971. But since you read my angst and my humour fics, this bittersweet AU is right in the middle so it fits.
> 
> Also, four is a bad number. I've used it several times in my fics. Why stop now?
> 
> I've never been to prom so this is very much inaccurate. I skipped prom to go to a Pentatonix concert. I got to enjoy good music while being blinded by stage lights and almost went deaf when a bunch of twelve year olds screamed Avi's name loudly.
> 
> – 15 April 2018


End file.
